Ball and Glove Returning Toy

ABSTRACT

A toy that includes a returning ball mounted on an elastic cord. The other end of the elastic cord is mounted to a glove, such as a baseball glove. The elastic cord may be mounted to a stitch in the glove, or may be connected to a special connection part that is attached at first and second ends to the glove leaving an open connection between those first and second ends.

BACKGROUND

Our U.S. Pat. No. 6,971,963 discloses a toy that uses a ball on anelastic string, to bounce back toward the thrower. The ball can bethrown either against the surface or simply into air. The force of theelastic brings the ball back to the original wearer. This system uses aVelcro® based wrist strap, that can be tightened around a user's wrist.

SUMMARY

The present invention teaches a toy formed with an elastic cord andball, where the hand connection part is a glove.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other aspects will now be described in detail with referenceto the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment showing the glove, elastic strap andball;

FIG. 2 illustrates a connection between the elastic strap and the glove;and

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment showing the glove, elastic strap andball.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The general structure and techniques, and more specific embodimentswhich can be used to effect different ways of carrying out the moregeneral goals, are described herein.

Systems such as our previous U.S. Pat. No. 6,971,963 uses a wrist bandthat connects to a user's wrist, so that a ball can be thrown and easilycaught. This system is easy to use and inexpensive to produce. However,there may be certain limitations with such a system.

First of all, since the wrist band is used, the ball must be light andsoft, because a harder ball could be difficult to catch and/or couldcause injury.

Another issue is caused by the inconvenience of having to attach thewrist band to a user's wrist. If the band is too loose, it will fly offthe wrist. This requires that the strap be attached each time the deviceis going to be used.

The present application uses the hand attachment mechanism as being aglove, e.g., a baseball mitt. A glove enables a different way of usingthis kind of toy. The ball can be made heavier, since it can be caughtin the glove, e.g., the mitt. Even if a light ball is used, moreover,this provides some practice in using a baseball mitt. In addition,wearing and removing may become simpler, for example, it is much easierto simply slip on the baseball mitt, over a user's fingers, as comparedwith the wrist band which requires actually attaching and detaching.This toy also allows throwing the ball with one hand, and catching theball in the glove on the other hand.

While the present device uses a baseball mitt as the hand attachingpart, it should be understood that any glove or partial glove could beused, basically anything that fits over a user's hand and/or palm and/orfingers could be used as the hand attaching part.

An embodiment is shown in FIG. 1. A glove 100, here a baseball mitt, hasa number of finger attachment parts, such as 102 which includes innersurfaces such as 103 into which the user's palm is attached. The fingerparts, such as 102, 104, 106, 107, 108, each include inner surfaces toreceive a user's hand part. Part 104 includes inner surfaces such as 105that receive an index finger of the user, for example. The user cantherefore place a hand into the glove, and automatically and immediatelyform an attachment to the cord and ball.

There may be a padded area such as 110, which is padded with foam orother similar material. The baseball mitt may, as conventional, includeother finger parts such as 106, 107, 108, and may also include a webbingpart 109 that extends between the thumb portion 102 and the indexportion 104.

In one embodiment, the baseball mitt may also include tied portions suchas 111 between fingers such as 104, 106. The baseball mitt is open atits bottom portion 115, allowing the user's hand to be placed therein.Other stitching parts may also be provided.

As shown in FIG. 1, the glove 100 is attached to an elastic cord 120.The elastic cord 120 is in turn attached to a ball 130, e.g., a spongetype or other ball. The ball is preferably cushioned, but can beheavier. Any desired attachment mechanism can be used to attach to theglove 100 and to the ball 130.

FIG. 2 shows a close-up connection of the attachment to the glove. Inthe FIG. 2 embodiment, a attachment mechanism 200 is a fabric or leatherpiece that is sewn or glued to the glove. The attachment mechanism 200includes a first attachment part 205 and a second attachment part 206.Both 205 and 206 are attached to a portion of the glove, preferably at aportion that will be adjacent to the location of the user's palm whenthey are using the glove. A raised area 210 forms a hoop-like portionwhich is raised above the surface of the glove, thereby forming an openarea 211.

In the embodiment, the elastic 120 has an end connection portion 212that is connected through the open area 211. In this embodiment, theattachment portion can be a loop formed in the elastic cord, eitherformed by feeding a portion of the elastic through the open portion 211and forming a knot 213. The knot is preferably covered by a shrink-wrapcovering 213. At the other end of the elastic cord 120, it is attachedto the ball, for example by gluing or by any other technique.

In an alternative embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the elastic cord isattached directly to one of the stitches in the glove 299. In thisembodiment, some leather stitching, such as 300 extends through asurface of the glove, extending from the front to the back.

The elastic cord 350 includes an attachment mechanism 301 that attachesunder that leather stitching. In this embodiment, the attachmentmechanism includes a metal clip 302, for example a clip that has adeformable portion that maintains its closure, but which can be squeezedto reopen. The bottom of the clip 302 ends in a connection loop 303which in this embodiment is attached to a swivel mechanism 304. Theswivel mechanism 304 then connects to the elastic cord 350.

A connection to the elastic cord 350 is made by making knots or othertypes of connections between different sections of the elastic cord. Afirst section 310 of elastic cord extends through the bottom hole 305 ofthe swivel. In the figure, the section 310 is simply passed through thehole 305, with both its end pieces being connected to the second section320.

The connection between the first section of elastic cord 310 and thesecond section of elastic cord 320 is made at 315. The connection at 315may be made by making a knot or by any other type connection, forexample by gluing. The connection 315 is then covered by a shrink sleeve316 to avoid seeing the knot or fraying it.

The main section 320 of elastic cord may be between 2 and 3 feet inlength. The section 320 terminates in another connection area 325,formed by a knot connecting to another section 330. The knot issimilarly covered by a shrink sleeve 327. Section 330 extends through acentral through hole 340 within the ball 130. Like section 310, this maysimply extend through the connected part, back to itself.

As an alternative, there may be another interface 333 between thesection 330 and a more rigid section of material that extends through athrough hole 340 in the ball 130. The use of a more rigid material mayfacilitate a very small through hole in the ball. For example, the rigidmaterial can be forced through a small hole in the ball, or can itselfbe used to puncture the ball.

According to another embodiment, the cord portion 330 may be attached toan interface plate which has a hole therein, and the interface plate maybe glued or otherwise attached to the ball.

The general structure and techniques, and more specific embodimentswhich can be used to effect different ways of carrying out the moregeneral goals are described herein.

Although only a few embodiments have been disclosed in detail above,other embodiments are possible and the inventor(s) intend these to beencompassed within this specification. The specification describesspecific examples to accomplish a more general goal that may beaccomplished in another way. This disclosure is intended to beexemplary, and the claims are intended to cover any modification oralternative which might be predictable to a person having ordinary skillin the art. For example, other gloves and balls can be used.

Also, the inventors intend that only those claims which use the words“means for” are intended to be interpreted under 35 USC 112, sixthparagraph. Moreover, no limitations from the specification are intendedto be read into any claims, unless those limitations are expresslyincluded in the claims. The computers described herein may be any kindof computer, either general purpose, or some specific purpose computersuch as a workstation. The computer may be a Pentium class computer,running Windows XP or Linux, or may be a Macintosh computer. Thecomputer may also be a handheld computer, such as a PDA, cellphone, orlaptop.

The programs may be written in C, or Java, Brew or any other programminglanguage. The programs may be resident on a storage medium, e.g.,magnetic or optical, e.g. the computer hard drive, a removable disk ormedia such as a memory stick or SD media, or other removable medium. Theprograms may also be run over a network, for example, with a server orother machine sending signals to the local machine, which allows thelocal machine to carry out the operations described herein.

1. A device, comprising: a glove part, having at least one inner surfaceadapted to cover a finger of a user, said glove part including aconnection portion thereon; a ball, including a connection portionthereon; and an elastic cord, connected between said connection portionof said ball, and said connection portion of said glove.
 2. A device asin claim 1, wherein said glove part is a baseball mitt.
 3. A device asin claim 1, wherein said connection portion is a portion that is locatedon a palm portion of the glove.
 4. A device as in claim 1, wherein saidconnection portion is a separate piece that is attached to the glove. 5.A device as in claim 1, wherein said connection portion is a stitchwithin the glove.
 6. A device as in claim 1, wherein said connectionportion on said ball is a through hole on said ball.
 7. A device as inclaim 1, wherein said elastic cord comprises a plurality of separatedsections of elastic cord, which are connected together.
 8. A device asin claim 7, wherein said elastic cord is connected to other sections atconnection portions, and each of a plurality of connection portionincludes a shrinkwrap portion, covering the connection portion.
 9. Adevice as in claim 7, further comprising a rigid cord, connected to saidelastic cord, wherein said connection portion is a through hole on saidball, and said rigid cord is passed through said through hole on saidball.
 10. A device as in claim 7, further comprising a swiveling part,connected to said elastic cord, preventing knotting of said elasticcord.
 11. A method, comprising: using a toy by putting on a glove, andthrowing a ball that is attached to the glove via an elastic cord, andreceiving the ball back by action of said elastic cord, into the glove,after said throwing.
 12. A method, comprising connecting a first end ofan elastic cord to a glove; and connecting a ball to an other end of theelastic cord.
 13. A method as in claim 12, wherein said glove is abaseball glove, and said ball is a soft spongy ball that looks like abaseball.
 14. A method as in claim 12, wherein said connecting a firstend comprises connecting the first end of the electric cord to a stitchin the glove.
 15. A method as in claim 12, wherein said connecting afirst end comprises attaching an extra piece to the glove, at first andsecond ends of the extra piece, leaving an open unconnected piece in themiddle between said first and second ends, and connecting said first endto said open unconnected piece.
 16. A method as in claim 15, whereinsaid connecting said first end to said open unconnected piece compriseslooping the first end through the unconnected piece.
 17. A method as inclaim 12, wherein said connecting a ball comprises connecting a rigidcord to said other end of said elastic cord, and forcing said rigid cordthrough a portion of said ball.